Well, my foglights went out just yesterday. I didn`t have the time to figure out what was wrong with it. So today I had time, just a few minutes ago, I was in my garage trying to find out what is wrong with it. Well the thing is, before I got into the car accident that happened awhile back, I had grille neon lighting. And it was connected to the dimming thing inside the car, and then it was hooked up into a switch so I can turn the neon lights on and off. So, when I was installing my foglights, that was where I installed it to, to the wires of the neon lights, and I checked my switch to see if there was anything wrong, and the wires were all burnt. So I took it off, rewired it with new wires. I took off the foglights for now, but I had these two neon lighting thingie that my friend got from Taiwan, and it looked pretty good for the footwell lighting. So I stripped the wires, put one wire to the Negative wire, and turned on my lights, and touched the other wire to the Positive wire (I was checking which is positive and negative at this time) and all of a sudden I see a spark a little pop from somewhere I don`t know. And my interior lights went out! IE: Gauge lights, clock backlight, radio backlight, the AC back lights, the gear notification on the dash (P R N D4 ETC), were all out. I checked all the fuses, they were all fine, I was really hoping one of the fuses went out, but no luck, I checked the wires to see if they were burnt, and no sign of burnt wires. The weird thing is, when I put the ignition on the ON position, the Trip Meter, Odometer, the Outside Temperature, anything from that box lights up, this is when my headlights are off, but when I turn on my headlights, those lights go off. I couldn`t figure out what the problem was. Anyone had this before? I told myself, after I fix this, I`m not going to mess with electrical sh*t no more =\ I need help, I don`t want to take it to the dealer to check it out, it`ll cost a grip =( Does anyone have an idea of what is going on here? Sorry for the long post...

 

*bump*

 

im sorry to hear that but i think you should make sure you know what you are doing before messing with electrical stuff...


so you're saying when your headlights are off, everything works fine, and when you turn your headlights on things stop working??

your problem might be caused by a faulty/busted relay...

 

dont get me wrong, i dont think you have enough experience if you can just short circuit your car like that, for future installations ALWAYS use inline fuse. You definitely blew a fuse for the interior, so just replace that.

You've mentioned that you have connected your foglights to the existing neon wiring from before, is there a relay? is there a fuse? does the fuse match the foglights consumption?

Check your parking lights fuse.

 

It`s been very long since I have had this problem. Sadly, I still have this problem. How exactly do I find out if a relay is busted? WHen you guys are talking about relays, you`re talking about the little block things, kind of like a fuse thing right? I checked the fuse box under the hood and saw the Lighting Relay 1 and 2, but I don`t know how to tell if it has been busted. I have checked all my fuses, and they are all fine.

 

Did you check the fuses inside the car.... eg in the dash? The interior lights are controlled by those fuses rather than the fuses in the engine compartment.

 

You have a set of aftermarket fogs? Or is this for a 02/03 with the factroy fogs?

 

I am sorry, I see that you have a 99. I am reading the entire post and i'll let you know what i think. The relay will be probably seperate of the fusebox because it is a aftermarket one but you are right it is like a block. Small little cube or close enough to being a cube and probably has the numbers 85/85/87/30 and sometimes 87a too.

 

So basically explain it all again, you are saying that all your interior lights went out. You probably smelt something burnt for the interior lights. There are probably other fuses that you didnt notice yet.

Did you disconnect all the wiring that you did? What did you have connected to the which negative and what to what positive??

 

 

Yes, t0ast and Bxscig, I have checked the 2 fuse boxes inside the car. Both passenger and driver`s side fuse box. Hmm, I don`t really remember if I smelt anything burning after my int. lights went out.

I was installing some LED int. light, and I was tapping it into the int. light dimmer dial. I had the negative wire to the negative, and positive wire to the positive of the wires of the dimmer dial. When I turned on my lights to see if it worked, everything went out, my whole int. light completely went out. So I took off all the wiring I previously did, put everything back. It still didn`t come on, checked all fuses many times, still trying to figure out how this relay thing works, and you`re right Bxscig, it has those numbers that you had previously posted or what not.

People have told me it might be burnt wires somewhere or a short. But I don`t really think so because the dash lights (IE: Odometer and Trip Meter, P R N D D3 D2 D1 backlights, clock backlight) still work when my headlights aren`t on, but once I turn my headlights on, that is when everything goes off. I went to AutoZone today and asked how a relay works, he has no idea???? O_O And told me to take it to a shop that specializes in car electronics. It costs money tho`. :-\

EDIT: Bxscig, I don`t know which relays you are talking about that are seperate from the fusebox and is aftermarket? I had fuses for the foglights, but the relay blocks I`m talking about are the ones in the fuse box under the hood, with the rest of the other fuses (headlight fuse, etc.) Just making sure we are on the same page.

 

I dont think that you should of tapped into the dimmer dial. It sounds like you tapped the wrong wires also. How did you know which pins to take?

This is how a relay works. When there is + and - across 86 and 85, then it will connect pins 30 and 87. If there is no power across 86 and 85, then 30 and 87 will be disconnected. They use this so that you can seperate low power away from high power like in the case of headlights and fog lights. The actual bulbs take a lot more power, but the switch inside the car only needs a little power.

 

I'll take a look when I get home and see if I can find a common point that would cause this to happen. I feel it is a short some where but you said you removed all the wiring. It is definitely a weird problem but I will give it a shot to help. Right now you are still driving without interior lights at night? Wish that you were on the east coast in NYC so I could take a look.

 

So the dome lights and all the interior lights work with or without your headlights on? I found a relay that MIGHT be connected to both systems.

Does the dash lights turn off when you put it into park?

When you say they go off, do you mean the illumination or like you dont even know what gear you are in, you dont know how many miles you have on the car, etc....

 

They go off, yes, I wouldn`t know what gear I am in, I wouldn`t be able to see my Trip Meter, my Speedometer, Gas Gauges, ETC. I`ll try to put it in easier words, if I can. When the headlight switch is in the off position, the default lights are on, meaning, I can be able to see what gears I am shifting to, and my Trip Meter. But once it is in the On position, the first position, where your front signal lights turn on only, that is when they all go off. Regardless of what gear I am in, it`ll still be off as long as my headlights are on. Dome lights and Courtesy Lights works fine regardless if the dash is working or not. And yeah I have been driving around with no light to tell me how fast I am going or where my gas needle is, or when to shift. I`d have to turn on the map lights to even barely see anything on my gauges. And another weird thing, my dash is completely off, but the only thing that is on, would be the radio controls. It is really really really dim tho`, I have tried adjusting the dimmer dial but it doesn`t do any help. That is the only thing working inside my car when my headlights are on, other than Dome Lights and Courtesy Lights.

 

Ok thanks for the explaination again. Did you try to replace the dimmer control? From what I understand you tried to hook up the neons to that switch and you probably fried it. Do you have any friend with a TL that you can take it from their 99 TL and try?

 

Note to self: Don't put cheap Taiwanese stuff in a TL...

 

It was the neons that he put in that caused the problem. He had to of shorted something.

 

So can it be the Dimmer? I don`t know anyone with a TL How much would the dealer sell me one of these for? But I don`t want to buy it and it isn`t the problem. How sure are you about the Dimmer being the cause of this? Is there anyone in the Valley with a TL that`ll let me try their Dimmer on mines? :\

 

I never had this problem nor am I a technician but I do electrical work. I can look at it some more but it is hard if I cant test it. Just trying to help you troubleshoot.



It appears it is about $27.

 

I see. Thank you for the help and the diagram. Could there be any other possible causes to why this has happened? I still don`t understand why the lights have to go off when the headlights are turned on. All other lights would work, like the Gas light, the seatbelt light, Maint. Req. light, TCS.

 

Let me post a diagram and you can probably see.

 

 

Green - That is when you put your parking lights on. You said when parking lights are on w/o headlights it would still go off too right?

Red - That is the dimmer switch. Do you remember which wires you tapped into?

Blue - This is where you described to be faulty correct?

Below this diagram where I did not post is the lights that you said that do work.

It is just an educated guess from me. Unless someone else can chime and and give you some more insight.

 

I am sorry. I think maybe it is in the blue circle that is messed up. It is some where in here.

Power comes in from K16 to A15 of the gauge assembly. Maybe that part is messed up. I am sorry I hope this helps a bit at least.

 

Yeah, that is correct. The blue circled area is where there is no light. And yes, it also goes off when only my Parking Lights are on. I will have to check with what wires I have tapped into, and I will get back to you on that. Thanks so much for the diagram, you have helped a lot into giving me clues and where to look. BTW, what manual are these diagrams from?

 

I grabbed it from a 17GB program that I think some shops use. I WISH I had the helms manual. At least it seems your problem is isolate to a smaller area.

 

Wow you respond fast too. Hahah, ^___^. But um, I just went out to check which wires I had tapped into, and it turns out to be the Red Wire, and the Red + Black wire. I have 4 wires in the adapter that connect into the Dimmer Control. o_O The other 2 wires are colored Red and Red + White, I think, I tapped the lighting wire into the 2 wires that are more further to the left.

 

Let me go check one more time and let you know what color all the wires are.

 

Okay, I`m sorry about that. I have 4 wires, from left to right, the colors are: Red, Red + Black Line, White + Red Line, and then Red + White Line. I had the wires tapped into the Red and Red + Black Line wire.

 

You see that little light bulb type thing right in the bottom of the red circle? That is what u tapped into the Red Black is in top and the Red is on the bottom. It appears something with the Red/Black wire goes up and connects to the Blue Circle.

I am not sure why it only affected that gauage assembly (blue circle)

 

I hope that you dont have to replace the whole gauge assembly.

 

It affected everything, my clock backlight is gone, climate lights and stuff are gone, radio lights are gone, weird thing is the radio light is KIND OF on, but are REAL dim, like, you can only see it in pure darknesss.

 

I am sorry this is the most I can do. I dont know why it only affected the stuff in the blue circle . The dimmer circuit part is probably the issue.

 

You have done a lot Thanks so much. I guess I`m gonna try to buy a new dimmer and try it out. Thanks again!!

 

Ask around for someone's help first in the area. Sure beats paying $30

 

Hmm, I`m guessing the bulb in the diagram is the bulb that emits light to the area and when you dim, it dims the bulb, therefore dimming the rest? Just my guess :-D

 

That is just the bulb that illuminates the switch when the lights are on. The wire coming out of A16 is the one that controls the voltage. The higher the voltage the brighter it will be. All the the other connections just tap off of that.

 

Any luck on fixing the issue?